0On the staff will be printed many different types of notes and rests. The style of note refers to the length of the note, and the placement of the note on the staff refers to the pitch of the note. Notes are made of heads, which are either dots or circles, and stems, which trail off from the head of the note, either up or down on the staff, depending on the placement of the note.
- Whole notes look like ovals, and are held out for 4 quarter notes.
- Half notes look like whole notes, but with a straight stem. They're held for half the length of a whole note. In 4/4 time, there would be 2 half-notes per measure.
- Quarter notes have solid black heads and straight stems. In 4/4 time, there are 4 quarter notes in a measure.
- Eighth notes look like quarter notes with little flags on the end of the stem. In most cases, eighth notes will be grouped together for each beat, with bars connecting the notes to signify the beat and make the music easier to read.
- Rests follow similar rules. Each whole rest looks like a black bar on the middle line of the staff, while quarter-note rests look a bit like a letter "K" in italics, building stems and flags as they break down into further divisions per beat.
- A dotted note or rest means that you add half of the value of the note. For example, a dotted half note would be 3 beats and a dotted quarter would be 1 1/2.
